UW News

October 25, 2007

Five UW profs named AAAS Fellows

Five UW faculty members have been named fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They and 466 other association members are recognized for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

The UW faculty members are:


  • Aimee H. Bakken: For innovative experiments explaining transcription factors and ribosomal proteins in intracellular trafficking of 5S ribosomal RNA. Bakken is an emeritus professor of zoology/biology who received a doctorate in 1970 from the University of Iowa. She joined the UW faculty in 1973 and became an emeritus professor in 2005.

  • Toby Bradshaw Jr.: For genetic studies of adaptive evolution in natural plant populations. Bradshaw is a professor of basic biological sciences who received a doctorate in biochemistry from Louisiana State University in 1984. He has been at the UW since 1984.

  • Conway B. Leovy: For pioneering studies of the Martian atmosphere and the dynamics of the Earth’s upper atmosphere, and service to the planetary and atmospheric sciences communities. Leovy is an emeritus professor of atmospheric sciences and geophysics who received a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a UW faculty member since 1968.

  • Dennis P. Lettenmaier: For distinguished contributions to the field of surface hydrology, particularly for development of land surface-atmosphere schemes used in climate modeling. Lettenmaier is a professor of civil and environmental engineering with a specialty in hydrology.  He received his bachelor and doctoral degrees from the UW, the doctorate in 1975.

  • Rene H. Levy: For distinguished contributions to the treatment of epilepsy, and for fostering the development and rational use of new drugs and therapeutic modalities. Levy joined the UW faculty in 1970, after earning his doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. His work has included the Metabolism and Transport Drug Interaction Database presently licensed by UWTechTransfer to pharmaceutical scientists throughout the world; he is also a former chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutics.

Founded in 1848, AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal, Science. AAAS includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science. According to material from AAAS, Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal, with an estimated readership of 1 million.

New fellows will be recognized in February during the 2008 AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston.